


I'm Making This Up as I Go

by Emma_Cresswell



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: Anxiety, Gen, Mother/Son Bonding, Trees
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 16:25:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10700715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emma_Cresswell/pseuds/Emma_Cresswell
Summary: Heidi and nine-year-old Evan have a nice, mother/son bonding talk....in a tree?





	I'm Making This Up as I Go

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, I wrote this in half an hour during class. We'll see how it turns out.  
> Title from "Anybody Have a Map?"  
> Disclaimer: I don't own DEH

“Evan, sweetie, what are you doing up there?”

“I like it up here,” Evan replied matter-of-factly, his small hands gripping the coarse branch he was sitting upon tightly.

Heidi let out a huff of breath in frustration, placing her hands on her hips. This wasn’t quite how she expected to spend her evening. But what can you do when you return home from work only to find an empty house? Heidi didn’t worry too much about Evan. Outside of school, he usually spent most of his day in the house. And if he wasn’t home, he was over at the Kleinmans. And if he wasn’t at the Kleinmans, he was at the park.

When Heidi came home from work, her nine-year-old son wasn’t in the house. And a phone call to the Kleinman household proved that Jared hadn’t seen his friend all day. Feeling a bit panicked, Heidi didn’t even take the time to change out of her scrubs before racing to the park in hopes of finding Evan there. 

Well, she found Evan. But she didn’t expect to find him thirty feet above the ground in the branches of an oak tree. 

“Are you going to come down?” Heidi called up to Evan

Though he was far up above her, Heidi could see the tears well up in Evan’s eyes as he firmly shook his head. “N-no. I don’t...I don’t want to.”

Heidi crossed her arms, not entirely sure what to do. Clearly, something was wrong. But if Evan refused to come down, she would never find out what. “You’re sure you want to stay up there?”

Evan nodded. 

Heidi sighed. “Okay, well, I’m coming up.”

Evan jolted in surprise, almost losing his grip on the tree. “Y-y-you’re going t-to...what?”

“I’m coming up there,” Heidi called again as she walked to the base of the tree. It was bigger than she thought, not to mention that it had been almost thirty years since she last climbed a tree, but she shrugged these thoughts aside as she reached for the first branch. 

“B-but what if you fall?” Evan asked, scrambling towards the center of the tree to get a better look at his mother.

“I won’t fall,” Heidi assured Evan as her sneakers found a good foothold. 

“What if--what if the branch can’t hold both of us?”

“I think we’ll be okay, Evan,” Heidi said, already halfway up.

Evan took a breath to voice another worry, but bit his lip instead, watching his mom climb the large oak tree with a mixture of awe and apprehension.

Heidi finally reached the large branch Evan was sitting on and motioned for him to scoot over so she could sit next to him. “I see why you don’t want to come down,” Heidi remarked. “It is a beautiful view.”

Evan merely nodded, keeping his gaze on the ground thirty feet below them. Heidi was at a bit of loss as to what to do. She and Evan had been slowly growing distant over the past few years, and Evan was beginning to reach that stage of life where he didn’t admire his mother’s every move. He was still a sweet boy, but he viewed Heidi as more of an acquaintance than a mom. 

Sighing, Heidi placed a tentative hand on Evan’s knee. “What’s wrong?”

Evan’s gaze flicked between Heidi and his hand several times and the tears made a reappearance in Evan’s blue eyes. But he simply shrugged, “I-I-I j-just had a panic attack. That’s all.”

That clearly wasn’t all. “So you decided to come out here?”

“Yes…”

“Did you have a bad day at school?”

“No.”

“Were the other kids mean to you?”

“No…” he said, but his eyes said otherwise.

“Evan,” Heidi warned.

“They just said some stuff about my stutter, that’s all,” Evan tried to explain. 

“Did you tell your teacher.”

“No.”

“Why not.”

“They said th-that they would steal my pencil case if I told her.”

“Evan, you need to tell the teacher if other kids are being mean to you, even if they say stuff like that, okay?” Heidi counseled, offering a silent prayer in her heart that it was valid advice and it wouldn’t make the other children’s pestering worse. 

“Okay,” Evan said, beginning to fidget.

“I’m sorry that that happened, Evan.”

“It-It’s fine,” Evan replied, swatting away the tears that threatened to leak. 

Heidi paused. “Have you had dinner yet?”

Evan shook his head.

“I think there’s some leftover pizza in the fridge. Do you want to come down and we’ll warm it up for dinner?”

The corner of Evan’s mouth twitched ever so slightly, the smallest indication of a smile showed. “Okay.”

Evan scampered down the tree easily. It took Heidi a bit longer to follow her son’s suit. But once they were both firmly on the ground, they exited the park with their hands entwined.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope it turned out alright. Comments/Kudos are nice but not necessary.


End file.
